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&ldquo;When (Bure) was on the attack, there was nobody better,&rdquo; former Vancouver Canucks coach Pat Quinn says of the Russian Rocket.

Pavel Bure had back-to-back 60-goal seasons for the Canucks and led the team to the 1994 Stanley Cup final. (Getty Images / Steve Babineau)

By Mark ZwolinskiSports Reporter

Fri., Nov. 9, 2012

Pavel Bure is in Toronto for the Hockey Hall of Fame induction this weekend while on the other side of Canada, a mild controversy rages over whether the Vancouver Canucks will honour him with a jersey retirement ceremony.

Bure will be enshrined in the Hall along with former Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin, Adam Oates and Joe Sakic, and there likely isn’t anything in the hockey world that will ruin the moment for the 41-year-old native of Moscow.

Reports in Vancouver said the team had finally agreed to retire the jersey Bure wore during his seven years of sensational play and apparent discontent as a Canuck. Bure forced a trade in 1998 by holding out during training camp, then vowed he wouldn’t return to the city even if the team hoisted his jersey to the rafters of the Rogers Arena.

Canucks GM Mike Gillis, who was Bure’s agent when he first signed with Vancouver, met with the player two years ago to begin the bridge-mending process and to discuss the jersey retirement ceremony. Reports about the ceremony — which many in hockey feel is long overdue — coincided with the Hall of Fame weekend but have not been confirmed by the team.

However, one report quoted former Canuck Gino Odjick as saying team owner Francesco Aquilini was to fly to Toronto to inform Bure that the jersey ceremony was indeed being planned in Vancouver.

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Bure’s Canucks career was marked by fabulous play and frequent reports of problems with management over money and the way he was being treated by the team.

The “Russian Rocket” would leave Vancouver but continued to have an outstanding career, five times scoring more than 50 goals. Knee injuries dampened the tail end of his career, but at his peak, he had back-to-back 60-goal seasons and led a Canucks roster coached by Pat Quinn (who is now on the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee) to the 1994 Stanley Cup final.

“Pavel certainly ranked up there, and when he was on the attack, there was nobody better,” Quinn told a Vancouver radio station back in June when the Hall of Fame unveiled this year’s inductees.

“If the Canucks are wise at all, they’ll come out and ask him to be there. If you’re going to recognize anybody, you probably should recognize the most electrifying player we’ve ever had in uniform. We’ve had some great players, but nobody, nobody was as electrifying as him.”

Bure finished his career with a .623 goals-per-game average — fifth best in NHL history — and reportedly is now working towards a law degree in Russia.

His comfort level in Vancouver was never certain, but those who sat beside him in the locker room say Bure, who came to Vancouver as a 19-year-old, was often intimidated by all the press and fan attention he received.

“He sat between me and Igor Larionov in the dressing room,” former Canuck Geoff Courtnall said.

“I loved Igor, he was a phenomenal teammate, so I guess Pavel had two guys who he respected. I just love the kid myself. . . . I helped him find his apartment, I introduced him to Mike Gillis (an agent at the time) and he was thankful. He was just one of those kids who, I knew, if he was comfortable, he’d help us win, so I did my best to make him feel comfortable.”

Courtnall recalled a Bure who also had trouble with English at first, especially understanding how to verbalize the nuances of what he felt.

Once he achieved stardom, Bure became a target on the ice. Courtnall said a game against Dallas during the 1994 playoff run exemplified the kind of rough treatment Bure overcame on the way to becoming one of the game’s all-time great scorers.

“They were killing him out there, slashing him, hacking him,” Courtnall said. “Craig Ludwig and Shane Churla, all their tough guys were doing everything they could to stop him. Ludwig cross-checked him in the neck and Churla knocked him down and cross-checked him. . . . Pavel got so pissed off. The next time he was out on the ice, Churla was (in the faceoff circle) with the puck and Pavel hit him so hard, he knocked him out. That showed me the kind of competitor Pavel was.”

Some reviews of that hit characterize it as a cheap shot; others say Bure needed to make a statement. Regardless, he was arguably the greatest goal-scorer of the 1990s next to Wayne Gretzky, and definitely ranks as one of the most exciting players of his time.

“Certainly the most electrifying player I ever played with,” Courtnall said.

• A YouTube user (WeatherWiseCDC) clipped video of six games in which Bure didn’t score a goal and was still able to produce a highlight reel showing Bure’s skating and passing brilliance.

• The Hockey News once compared Bure to 1980s scoring legend and Hall of Famer Mike Bossy. Bossy had five 60-goal and four 50-goal campaigns in a time when the NHL averaged between seven and eight goals per game. Bure put up back-to-back 60-goal seasons and three with 50, but his feats came in the so-called “dead puck era” where the goals-per-game average was between 5.2 and 6.5.

• Bure began playing hockey at age 6, and at 11 (1982), he was one of three young Russians selected to practise with Wayne Gretzky and Vladislav Tretiak in a TV special. At 14, Bure was named to the Central Red Army junior team.

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